Academy of Magic

An academy founded by the Keepers of Mana to teach fledgeling summoners; it is located on the plane of Arcanis

Creation
The Academy of Magic was created by the Keepers of Mana approximately one year after The Awakening.

Description
The actual Academy spans across time and space, thanks to the temporal flux that enveloped the building, allowing anyone within to be at multiple places at the same time. The actual mechanics of this are incredibly complicated and would have any physicist pulling out their hair in agony, but the basic idea is that the flux distorts time and space, creating alternate dimensions within the building depending on one’s location. The practical aspect of this is that students do not need to worry about being late for their classes since no matter what the time is before they enter the classroom, the minute they leave the hallway and enter the class they arrive at the precise time the class starts. To keep some sense of time, the Academy runs on a standard time, proper to the actual planetary cycle. As such, the main building of the Academy is unaffected by the time flux and serves as a reference point in time.

From the outside, the Academy of Magic looks like a medieval Terran castle, but if you looks closely, you can notice many architectural influences, both from Terrestria and from other planes of the Multiverse. The building is roughly pentagonal, each of its points directs toward one of the land types. In fact, everything in the Academy is geared toward the number five. A gate leads out of each wall with a path leading toward the land corresponding to the gate’s orientation. At each of the points of the pentagon stands a tower overlooking the land type corresponding to its teacher. For example, the teacher of Black Mana’s tower is in the south-east corner and looks out over the swamps. Similarly, the white teacher’s tower stands in the north corner and looks over the golden plains. The same goes for the other towers: blue in the north-east and overlooking the ocean, green in the north-west and overlooking the forest, while the red tower is in the south-west and overlooks the mountains.

Five paths converge inwards from the five gates to a pentagonal structure that forms the heart of the Academy. This structure is in fact at the precise intersection of the five land types and is the only place on Arcanis that all five colors of mana can be tapped at once.

It would be impossible to describe the interior of the Academy since the dormitories, training area, classrooms, student common room and dueling arena are the only locations that remain in the same place at all times. Outside of these, the hallways, staircases and even the walls change at random according to the flow of mana through the Academy. The vortex of the five opposing types of mana created this distortion in the space-time continuum so that you can never take the same route twice. This creates a rather amusing improbability factor. For instance, one minute you could be walking through a hallway illuminated by large windows, giving you a splendid view of the ocean where sea birds were bickering over morsels of food and the next, you’d be deep in a dark dungeon with the pungent smell of mildew in the air and the beautiful view would be replaced by cold stone walls, covered in an unidentifiable slime.

Because of this randomness the Teachers don't know everything about the Academy. They suppose the high concentration of mana had caused the plane to develop a sort of consciousness of its own.

The inner building contains several important rooms: the Training Area, the Duelling Arena, the Student Common Room and the classrooms.

The Training Area is a large room with a sand floor. It is designed to allow students to practice their spells without having to worry about harming their fellow classmates. The sand is to soften any falls that occur from botched spells. Every inch of the room is covered in protective wards and Circles of Protection, mainly to ensure the whole place doesn't come crashing down due to the large amount of spells that hit the walls and ceilings.

The Duelling Arena is much like the Training Area, with its sand floor and protective wards, but it is oval, as opposed to the Training Area’s square shape, and smaller than the Training Area. Bleachers run around the perimeter of the arena to accommodate spectators to the duels.

The Student Common Room is located on the second story of the Academy and is another large room filled with comfy armchairs and tables. Several large bookcases run along the walls, crammed full of books about almost any topic dealing with summoning. Among these are several copies of the lost texts retelling the story of the Keepers of Mana; their rise to power, the conflicts that led to the War of the Keepers, the downfall of the Keepers and their rebirth during the Awakening. Five fireplaces (one on each wall) provide a comfortable atmosphere and warm the room nicely.

The classrooms are located on the third floor of the Academy. There are a large number of empty or unused classrooms, each containing different things depending on what they were intended to be used for.

The student dorms are on the fourth floor and the students have the choice of single or double rooms. Each room is equipped with a bed, two in the case of the double rooms, a chair and desk, a wardrobe and a dresser, as well as a small bookshelf filled with some useful books about summoning for beginners.